ISTANBUL -- Turkey's Interior Ministry said Monday that it had detained more than 800 people in a weeklong security operation against the Islamic State extremist group, underscoring the rising alarm over the militant threats after a series of deadly attacks.
The state-run Anadolu news agency had previously said 445 people had been detained in simultaneous police operations early Sunday.
The Interior Ministry's statement Monday said the Sunday raids were carried out in 29 cities, but the ministry gave no details on how the suspects were linked to the Islamic State.
It was believed to be the largest operation by the Turkish authorities against the militant group, and it came five weeks after the Islamic State claimed links to an attack by a lone gunman that killed dozens of people celebrating the new year at a nightclub in Istanbul.
Turkey has steadily intensified its anti-terror operations since December, when the country was shaken by a string of attacks that came in rapid succession. They included the car bombing of a stadium in central Istanbul claimed by Kurdish militants, and the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey in Ankara, the Turkish capital.
In a scene captured by journalists, the diplomat's assassin, Mevlut Mert Altintas, invoked the bloodshed in the Syrian city of Aleppo, as the stricken ambassador, Andrei Karlov, lay nearby.
Turkey's deepening military involvement in the Syrian war has led to widening political divisions at home and exposed it to a growing threat of retaliation from the Islamic State. Turkish troops launched an offensive last summer against the Islamic State-held town of Jarabulus.
Turkey, a member of NATO and the U.S-led coalition against Islamic State, shares borders with Syria and Iraq.
Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- one of the region's most stalwart backers of rebel groups fighting against the Syrian government -- has more recently shifted course. Turkey has teamed up with Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, in trying to negotiate a political settlement to end the nearly six-year conflict.
In November, Abu Bakr el-Baghdadi, the Islamic State's leader, released an audio message calling on followers to add Turkey to "your list of battlefields."
After the New Year's day assault on the Reina nightclub, the Islamic State released a statement framing the killings as retribution for Turkish shelling and airstrikes on the militant group in Syria.
A Section on 02/07/2017